Passing Through, 91/2 by 13 3/4 inches, 2010
Jennifer Presant’s second solo show “Passing Through” opened at St. Barth’s Eden Rock Gallery on July 1. Presant lived and worked on the island under the artist-in-residence program with the gallery for the month of June. During the residency, she allowed her unique style of composition and detail be effected by her surroundings.
Presant attended the New York Academy of Art (which has a strong relationship with Eden Rock Gallery), where she trained in figurative realism and graphic design. In her work, she combines the two practices to create paintings that play with layers of images and renderings the way photography does. Changing the internal to the external, opacities to the subjects, Presant’s paintings project the idea of our uncontrollable environments and the memories they leave in us.
“Passing Through” will be on display through August 20, 2010. Whitewall asked the artist about her residency specifically, and her work as a whole.
WHITEWALL: There a lot of common images in your work. Particularly, the projections of a background onto a sharp corner, the silhouettes of crowds in front of projections, and the interweaving of street scenes with indoor scenes. Can you elaborate on the what and why of these recurring mages?
JENNIFER PRESANT: I am interested in space and a sense of place. In my paintings, I explore the transformation of a white cube by using projections of various places or figures on the walls, in essence creating a virtual extension of the space. By referencing video and installation art, I am exploring how a room can be transformed by an artists vision and create an experience that is multilayered and time-based for the viewer.
The series of paintings with silhouettes comment on the current social condition of living in a world inundated with imagery. The documentation of an event has replaced the experience. We are the silhouettes, passing by. In a sense, we too exist as images and become voyeurs in our own lives.
I started the interior/exterior series during a residency in Vermont, during winter, when it snowed every day. It was incredibly beautiful and cold, and I spent a lot of time looking out of windows. I started combining views from outside and inside, merging the two as a metaphor for the transient sense I had there. There was a slightly voyeuristic feeling of looking in or out at other spaces and people’s lives.
Thematically, these paintings also deal with how our memories are fragmented and slightly distorted. They are meant to feel like waking dreams or psychological landscapes in which everything looks a little too perfect. It is as if something might have just happened or is about to happen.
These two streams of work tie together in the way they deal with multiple layers of imagery. Both also, question the notion of reality, with the projected space the real world becomes a flattened image, whereas with the interiors/exteriors series, the space is more dreamlike and uninhabitable.
WW: Your paintings have a lot of connection to photography and its effects, including the flaws (blurred light, focus, over exposure, etc). Does the idea of photographs containing memories and nostalgia link to the implied meaning of your paintings?
JP: Yes, my paintings do have a connection to photography, both conceptually and aesthetically. Photographs can take the place of memories and can also distort them. I love that I think I remember times from my childhood, that were, in fact, only from stories told to me or from old photographs, not real events; the power of images is amazing. There is also nostalgia for old photos, wherein the past gets romanticized. The truth becomes fictionalized in a way, and I like that tension in my work.
As you mentioned, I also use the effects of photographs in my painting. I like how light can become a psychological component in the way it both reveals and conceals elements of an image. When I am painting from photographic reference, I purposefully take advantage of the strange inconsistencies and ambiguities of the image. Space can become flattened, over-exposed or hidden in shadow, obscuring true form. One particular part of a photo can be perfectly clear while the rest is not, just like our memories.
WW: Can you discuss your use of photography as an outlet to create your dreamlike compositions and play with reality?
JP: While traveling, I take many photos of idyllic places. These places all have personal significance for me, almost like autobiographical time capsules. I also use old family photographs or archetypal imagery, like in the War paintings. The photos are interesting as they are; yet I edit a lot of information and move around objects to support the specific concept for each painting. The final compositional image from which I paint is comprised of at least two to three photos and places.
When deciding which photos to combine for a painting, I choose those that seem related either in subject, color or mood. I use architectural elements to frame and divide the spaces and line up horizons, color and graphic elements. At first glance, I like the image to feel as if it existed exactly as I painted it. I search for that fine line between the strange and familiar, dreamlike yet plausible enough to engage the viewer and leave an open-ended narrative.
Bien Recu, 15 x 24 in., 2010
Shift, 9 1/2 x 13 3/4 in., 2010.
Take one, 25 1/2 by 35 1/2 inches., 2010.
WW: Your paintings are known for being beautifully meticulous and well rendered. The Eden Rock paintings seem a tiny bit looser, more relaxed maybe. Was this intentional, or was there a natural change in the feeling of painting once you were put in a new environment?
JP: The looser nature of the paint application was both intentional and circumstantial.
Before leaving for my residency, I knew that I was going to have limited time to produce work for an entire show, so I expected to work looser, with more expressive brushwork. In anticipation, I brought much larger brushes; excited to see how my style might change, imagining large sweeping strokes across my canvas. While down there, I didn’t quite use those large brushes, and my style fell somewhere between tight and loose, but they
definitely weren’t as meticulously painted as my paintings done at home. I can spend weeks or months on one painting. While in St. Barths, I enjoyed the challenge of completing a painting in much less time, merely days! My brushstrokes and color had to be accurate from the start, since my first layer of paint was the last. In addition, the mood in St. Barths was light and breezy, and didn’t seem to warrant the weight of a labored style. In the end, I enjoyed the fresh, more lighthearted painting I did and the work reflected the fast-paced, en-plein-air, tone of my trip.
WW: Was there anything new you got to try in St. Barths that you might not have thought of elsewhere?
JP: I haven’t created imagery with such a flattened or ambiguous space, like in “Shift”. I left architectural elements completely white, whereas in the past I would have painted them realistically with modeled form. I found an interesting juxtaposition in the surroundings from the volumetric rocks to the flat graphic shapes of the architecture. The subject changed a bit too. My paintings in St. Barth’s, combined two exterior spaces, rather than an interior and exterior. Having only outside views without an intimate domestic space, changed the psychology of the work.
WW: What was it like in general being in St. Barth’s, staying at Eden Rock and interacting with the guests?
JP: St. Barths is a very beautiful island. The mountainous terrain and gorgeous beaches are so stunning. It is not commercial or overly touristy like many other islands, which makes one feel like one has landed on a livable paradise. The Eden Rock hotel in particular, is a very inspiring place. Each villa is highly designed with amazing detail and gorgeous colors. In fact, the interesting architecture juxtaposed with rocky formations, white-sandy beaches and turquoise water became the pictorial subject of my work.
The residency was the award of a juried show last year and I felt truly lucky to have this opportunity. I was the staff artist and worked in the gallery during the day, gave lessons to guests, and used the gallery as a studio space. Painting in the gallery became a kind of performance. Ordinarily, in New York, I am painting in my studio alone, without people walking in or stopping by to discuss my work. It is a more solitary act. At the Eden Rock, I really enjoyed the engagement with hotel guests. Some were art enthusiasts, some artists themselves, and some perhaps just trying to get a little wave of air-conditioning. Overall it was very enjoyable, very intense artistically, and I hope to go back one day to explore the island a bit more.
A thin Covering, 24 x 32 inches.
Snowed In, 23 x 42 inches.
Sunday news, 23x 42 inches.
WW: You’ve done a previous series of work that was influenced by the time you spent in Vermont in the winter. How does time in varying surroundings affect your work?
JP: Artist residencies, in particular, can be a great opportunity to focus on a single body of work in a new environment. As I use landscapes in much of my paintings, I enjoy the challenge of translating immediate impressions of my surroundings into unmediated visual narratives. The colors and shapes, mood and sound are different everywhere. While in a new place, I discover what interests me both visually and psychologically.
As an artist living in New York, many of the scenes in my paintings are from the east coast, like in the Vermont series, that you mentioned. I have painted many landscapes, but haven’t painted many beach scenes, like I found in St. Barths. The colors were so striking on the island, and the half hidden structures tucked into rocky lush mountains made a strong visual impact on me. For me it’s generally important to travel as an artist, see new cultures, and environments and meet new people. Whether it is conscious or not, the experience will inform the work.
WW: Will this residency influence your next projects in anyway?
JP: I enjoyed the intensity of creating a body of work about one place during a short period of time. It forced me to clarify an initial concept quickly, begin paintings without hesitation and develop a single idea throughout several works. Often, I treat each painting as a single narrative, but am now inspired to investigate a theme more in depth throughout my next body of work. Also, as I mentioned, I experimented a little more with treating form, like in “Passing Through.” I might try to combine the stark graphic areas with more fully realized passages, in my interior/exterior paintings.
Sunburst, 50 x 70 inches.
At a close distance, 52 x 72 inches.
